Effects of Economic Recession on the Youth

Economic recession not only
affects those who belong in the working class or the generation
involved in labor. Children and the youth are getting affected by
economic recession and poverty so much, that these children
sometimes never acts their age or sometimes so insecure of their
surroundings.

According to the United Nations World Youth report, youth (with ages
18- 24 years old) is 18 percent of the world population. Meanwhile,
the youth is also 25 percent of working age population. Last 2007,
there were more than 1.2 billion people in the world who belonged to
this age group.

Youth are two to three times more likely than adults to be
unemployed. The situation is particularly critical for young women,
who suffer higher rates of unemployment than young men in the
majority of economies. According to the International Labour
Organization (ILO), youth in both industrialized and developing
countries are more likely to be working long hours, on short-term
contracts, low pay and with little or no social protection at all.

Youth who enter the workforce with limited prospects, like
underdeveloped and inadequate education, have the high probability
of facing unemployment, whether it is short or long term,
intermittent spells of unemployment and low- wage jobs.

There are more than1 billion youth people aged between15 to 24 are
unemployed. A large percentage (85 percent) would be from developing
countries. There are 160 million people unemployed globally right
now, according to ILO, and nearly 40 percent of this number comes
from the youth sector.

Most of the employed youth would be working with short term
employment. The casualisation or contractualisation of the youth
sector or making the youth work shorter terms affects the benefits
or social protection they get from employers. This explains why many
of the employed youth are working without or little protection.

Most of the worlds youth are working in the informal economy. In
Latin America, almost all newly created jobs employing youth are in
the informal economy. While in Africa, 93 percent of all new jobs
are also informal. Workers in informal sectors usually work long
hours, low pay, with poor working conditions. They dont have access
to social protection or benefits and any freedom for associations,
organizations or unions and collective bargaining.

There are also recession effects on the college students. During
recessions, the economic out put is decreasing. What the government
do is that they reduce taxes, while increasing the government safety
net on spending. Because of this, education budgets were harder to
make.

These government safety net on spending, constraints the daily
education of the students. Course offerings, programs, and student
activities may suffer budget cuts as programs compete for less
education funds. Funding opportunities for student loans,
scholarships, school employment, and aid may also weaken. During
budget cuts, less education budget will lead to higher tuition fees
to finance the missing funds. This case is particularly true for
state subsidized institutions and public schools.

Due to poverty and difficult times, there are numbers showing that
the youth are forced to enter low-paid and high risk jobs with
little social protection. Faced with poverty and better job
opportunities, our youth are forced to gamble their health and
physical strength.

There can be numerous ways for an economic recession to deeply cut
on our youth. There is a large number of young people currently
unemployed, and unemployment greatly affects even the attitude of
our youth. Unemployment can to marginalization, exclusion,
frustration and even low-esteem.

It is important to save our youth from the impeding crises.
Establishing youth employment policies and sound economic policies
are great ways to start it.